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iPad New 10.2" iPad: Touch ID, Smart Connector, A10, 2160x1620 - $329 - ** 3 GB RAM CONFIRMED **

WinterWolf90 said:
I have an Air 2 and have been wanting to upgrade just for light web browsing but this seems like a horrible "update" I mean at least update the process. Guess I will wait for the next air because the Pros are so damn expensive.
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Get an iPad Pro 10.5 refurbished unit. They are not expensive. They are US$469 64 GB or else $599 256 GB.

The iPad Pro 10.5 is better than the iPad Air 2 is basically every way, and it's fast. It's over twice as fast as the Air 2 for CPU, and a whopping 8X as fast for GPU.


Torty said:
I did upgrade from Air 2 to Air 3. The battery life and speed is impressive. Why to you think it's a horrible update?
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That's the other option, and it's similarly priced. I prefer the Pro 10.5 over the Air 10.5", although the Air 10.5" does have a couple of advantages.
 
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I’m on an iPad Air 1 and I am gonna get this iPad 7 if it has 3 GB RAM.

And people have told me in another thread I started that it almost surely supports Fast Charge.

If it has those two things I’m upgrading to it. If not, it’s gonna cost me another ~$140 and I’m getting an Air 3.

Reading these forums, it seems like Apple has a lot of spoiled users who think Apple is supposed to release an upgrade worthy device every year or two. I’m not sure why you guys would want to upgrade that frequently. I’m personally glad the technology has gotten to the point where you don’t need to upgrade so frequently. It saves me money not having to upgrade.

It looks like in the OP EugW is updating the specs for us as more as learned. Is it possible to put in the OP that RAM size isn’t known yet and an update is coming when more is known? Maybe I’m just being antsy. It’s not that difficult to read through the thread. Hopefully someone posts in here when it is known. Although we could be waiting a few weeks it seems...
[doublepost=1568583873][/doublepost]I don’t suppose there’s any way to know how the iPad 7 will perform with the games being released under Apple Arcade?

I’m not planning on subscribing. But I will have access to it through family sharing.
 
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Mr. Heckles said:
My issue with my 7.9 pro is the battery. $100 to replace, so not sure if it’s worth it.
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Processor difference (single core) is there, but not all that huge, IMO (6th and 7th gen sharing same A10). It comes down to slightly larger screen vs laminated, I think. Probably for $100, I'd do a battery replacement and save the $230+ for a future gen model. The 9.7 Pro is still plenty capable. If the 7th gen had gotten a processor upgrade, it would be a different story.
 
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russell_314 said:
It's a minor update. They put a larger screen and a smart connector so it's compatible with the Apple keyboard. The older one was still selling very well and this is just a minor refresh. They're not going to put an A12 and laminated display because then it would be an iPad Air. You say you understand the base model isn't going to have top tier specs but I don't think you're getting it. It's not going to have midrange specs AKA iPad Air either. It's going to have BASE specs with a BASE price. It's for a kid, teenager, or an adult that just wants a basic iPad. If you're looking for better they have those options available.
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Yeah, but the a10 was in the base-specs-for-a-base-price iPad in spring 2018. It’s now fall 2019 and it’s the same processor. Going to the a11 still would have been a “base spec” in the sense that the a11 was released 2 full years ago.

I mean, not that I hurts me - I’m happy with my 2019 air, and new a10 devices like this and the 2019 iPod touch just mean more years of support for my iPhone 7. But it’s still cheap as hell on apple’s part.
 
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In that JPEG Richard8655 posted, how is it that the iPad 6 is the highest scoring device on that benchmark?

Scoring well above devices released after it.

Is it an overclocked iPad 6 listed in the JPEG? The processor in it is listed as operating at a higher GHz than the same processor in the iPad 7. Can you overclock iPad processors? Why would Apple release a faster processor in the iPad 6 than the iPad 7?
 
levander said:
In that JPEG Richard8655 posted, how is it that the iPad 6 is the highest scoring device on that benchmark?

Scoring well above devices released after it.

Is it an overclocked iPad 6 listed in the JPEG? The processor in it is listed as operating at a higher GHz than the same processor in the iPad 7. Can you overclock iPad processors? Why would Apple release a faster processor in the iPad 6 than the iPad 7?
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You are confused. There is no iPad 7 on that graph. That’s an iPod 7.
 
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levander said:
In that JPEG Richard8655 posted, how is it that the iPad 6 is the highest scoring device on that benchmark?

Scoring well above devices released after it.

Is it an overclocked iPad 6 listed in the JPEG? The processor in it is listed as operating at a higher GHz than the same processor in the iPad 7. Can you overclock iPad processors? Why would Apple release a faster processor in the iPad 6 than the iPad 7?
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Huh? The chart only shows older devices apart from iPod Touch which has 30% slower clockrate. Note the A9X for the Pros meaning 1st gen. The extra 10 points above iPhone 7/7+ is pretty negligible. You can get variations greater than that on different runs on the same device. On average though, likely has to do with better thermals.

Here's the link to the full chart.

http://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks
 
The Man said:
Well, I think you should wait until we learn how much RAM is in the 7th gen iPad. If it has 3GB, getting the 128GB version would seem nice enough. At this point in time RAM is the most important as iPadOS has many multitasking features. And personally I want to use those features. If it doesn't have 3GB, I would get a refurbished 10.5" pro or an Air 3. Yes they are more expensive, but just think about how next year iPadOS will run on a 2GB iPad. I myself bought a 6th gen 128GB iPad in 2018 for below 400 Euro and I am happy with it, but now in 2019 the choice would be more difficult. The iPad Air seems great, but it is only 64GB for about 550 EUR. If you can live with 64GB, then great (and honestly I have more than 90GB free at the moment).
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Ram isn’t an issue with Apple devices as they optimize ram with their hardware seamlessly. The only time they use more is for more storage compacity. Otherwise, basing a purchase decision on how much ram and iPad uses is ridiculous. These are not surface/windows machines.
 
Macintoshrumors said:
Ram isn’t an issue with Apple devices as they optimize ram with their hardware seamlessly. The only time they use more is for more storage compacity. Otherwise, basing a purchase decision on how much ram and iPad uses is ridiculous. These are not surface/windows machines.
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So you’d buy a 2018 iPad Pro 11” with 500 MB of RAM? Let us know how well optimized that is for you.
 
Macintoshrumors said:
Ram isn’t an issue with Apple devices as they optimize ram with their hardware seamlessly. The only time they use more is for more storage compacity. Otherwise, basing a purchase decision on how much ram and iPad uses is ridiculous. These are not surface/windows machines.
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I would disagree with this. I have iPhone 8 (2 GB RAM) and iPad 6th generation (2 GB RAM). For both devices I consider the 2 GB RAM an issue. You are right that iOS has RAM management. However its management is something I highly dislike. It leads to a lot of tabs and apps reloads. Something I do not want to see in my mobile devices. The iPhone is a company phone and I use it mostly to read mails, open stuff in the web and work with OneDrive, Sharepoint and Microsoft Office files. The rate at which it reloads tabs in Safari is quite annoying.

I use the iPad for pretty much the same (except mails as the iPad is not a company device and it does not have access to my work mail). The reloads there are even worse. I could read something in the Books app and would open Skype for 30 seconds to check a new message and answer. For this time the Books app is reloaded and does not even remember properly the page I was on. This happens regularly.

Sure Apple found a way to not show complete crash of apps, but the reload is basically the same. In comparison my Android phone does not have such issues. Granted it has 4 GB RAM, but it never uses more than 2. The other 2 are kept for system optimization. Nevertheless it handles me opening 30 tabs in Chrome, it does not reload apps (unless we are talking about games) and overall offers far smoother user experience. And even when it does reload apps, it is quite faster compared to the iPhone.

To be honest unlike most people I do think that RAM management is iOS weakest point. This reloads are hindering my user experience and demotivate me to use the device itself. Apple spends way too much in coming up with new processors that most people cannot utilize up to their potential, but they do not invest in RAM management properly or do not put enough RAM in their devices. One of the many reasons that I do not consider iPad a good laptop alternative is actually the iOS's RAM management and the apps/tabs reloads. My workflow includes a lot of open tabs, a lot of apps using at the same time. The constant reloads lead to inefficiency and time wasted.
 
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At this point, 3GB RAM should be the minimum. I agree that browser tab and app reloads ruin the iPad experience. CPU is less important for the entry level iPad than the RAM. RAM limitations have always ruined the iPad experience. For example, Apple held onto that iPad 2 for years (2011-2014) with skimpy 512 MB RAM, and sold loads to schools. It could barely handle iOS upgrades because it ran out of RAM. If they upgraded the RAM to 1GB it would have been less of a problem, even with that A5 processor. Safari eventually couldn't load websites because of RAM limitations. So you have the latest and greatest iOS on that iPad 2, but it couldn't do Internet browsing anymore. How much fun was that. 2GB is barely enough on my iPad 6th gen, but doable. For 2019 I expect more.
 
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Apple can't do magic with memory optimizations. There's always a threshold between running okayish, and running smoothly. With iOS it has become 4GB because of all the added multitasking stuff. Remember when on the Mac side Apple kept selling 4GB RAM models. Yeah, those Macs could do stuff, but not really. Too much swapping to your HDD/SSD. Frustration ensued. Whatever processor you had, if you upgraded to 8GB, those Macs would suddenly sing. 8 GB RAM is the threshold on the Mac. In the end it is about delivering a great experience. More RAM always delivers more for the experience than the CPU. While CPU can cause reloads to become more instantly, the magic is when there is no reload of anything at all. So asking for 3 GB RAM in 2019 is not asking much.
 
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I got my iPad sixth generation today. The tablet is running smoothly and it’s not draining battery fast like old iPad Air first generation.
👍
 
The linked tweet was from a Twitter user who asked how much RAM the 7th gen iPad has. I would think Apple would include 3GB to best optimize A10 + iPadOS for a device that's supposed to be the successor to the 6th gen iPad.
 
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